Visiting a big little brother

I had a meeting the other day out at our city's biggest university, which happens to be one of the little sibs of that big boy up IH-35 in Austin.

I'm referring to UTSA—which stands for the University of Texas at San Antonio. There are University of Texas at's all over the state, but this one is ours and it's growing by leaps and bounds. Enrollment and programs are expanding, as is the campus' physical plant (and the library's collection, too). They even have a football team!

Gee whiz, but there are some huge buildings on that campus! Large enough to make you think of some of the structures on the campus of UT-Austin.

And, they're putting up new ones, it seems, as fast as they can.

Here you can see one of the many construction cranes I saw on my walk from the bus stop to the library, a walk that covers just a tiny section of the campus' acreage.

The library's not one of the newer buildings, in fact, it was one of the originals. But it's always (at least, I think so) had this amazing plaza in front of it...a pretty spectacular place that was looking a little lonely when I was there. Since the students were all on spring break. Imagine it full of chattering, socializing undergrads, as I'm sure it is on a normal Thursday morning:

I just love those panels overhead. I'll bet they keep the space relatively cool when the summer sun is beating down.

---

I mentioned the bus stop. Yes, I didn't have to deal with one of the concomitants of rapid growth that my UTSA colleagues have complained about—difficult and expensive parking. Nope, I just used the same bus pass I do every day going to work. But this time it got me a much plusher seat on the express from Crossroads/Wonderland Park-and-Ride out to the campus.

In addition to the nice seats, the bus even offers wifi, so I could have posted this blog item even sooner! However, I tend to use bus rides for reading and had a book with me to enjoy on the quick trip out IH-10 and back.

It's not quite the National Rail service I raved about when I was in England, but pretty nifty all the same.